#Alison Millner-Gulland

[straykatfish]

Held in St Nicholas Church, Bramber.

All the work shown is for sale (with one exception) and wherever possible I will include links to the artist’s website or, if they don’t have one, to their page on the Steyning Arts site. Where possible I spoke to the artist about their work but many had taken a well-earned break on what was an extremely hot day.

These photographs are by Wendy Ball who says she take them for her own pleasure and, although she has won a number of prizes, appears not to have a website. Some of them are printed on aluminium which seems to add an extra layer of cold air to the mostly winter scenes. I found the compositions interesting and the colours, but mostly I was taken by the patience necessary to capturing a moving animal in the right spot at the right time,

These acrylics by Mike Kelly, reminded me of stained glass, fractured and with lead partitions between the pieces. I remember making pictures at school using black paper over red and orange tissue pasted onto cartridge to mimic the effect. 

  These prints are by Andrew Purches who doesn’t seem to have a website. I was drawn to the simplicity of the demarcations in line and colour in these landscapes.

  These are by Carol Wagstaff whose work is both prolific and varied. These two are probably not my most preferred in terms of my own likes and dislikes, but I think they represent her artistry. Her instagram account gives a far better idea of her range and includes portraiture and abstracts from her recent humanitarian project currently on exhibition in Shoreham. She describes her work as “Multi Media Artwork encompassing Painting, Sculpture, Installation, Photography and Print.“

These marvelous little textiles are by Jean Griffiths “Textile Art and 2D”. As someone who has no skill or patience with a needle, this kind of work is a challenge too far. I can imagine making them with inks though – dark umber, gold, and orange. This small group is called ‘Fractured Earth’,

the next two, ‘Violet Sunset’ and ‘Seascape’ which are almost collages of fabrics stitched into their composition.

‘Welsh Landscape’ (bottom right) also includes a section of ordnance survey map.

I met John Corballis at last year’s art trail and saw him several times around the village on his bike. I hadn’t known how ill he was, and perhaps he didn’t either at that time, so his death later that year was a shock to all of us. This is a token exhibition of his work in oils – precise, controlled, and detailed which might be expected of a man whose life had been the law.

Crafty corner! These lovely little pieces are made by Carol Parker using flotsam found on the beach. I find the compositions compelling in their simplicity, balance, and colours.

  These digital photography prints are the work of Andrea Shelton who doesn’t seem to have a presence on the Steyning Arts site. I was attracted like the magpie I am to the bright colours and sense of floating light which reminded me of some of the virtual world environments I have experienced.

Further round the exhibition I found more of Carol Wagstaff’s work. Simple marks with a core subject. Taking photos through glass doesn’t do them justice.

Sarah Duffield ‘Sussex Landscape Artist and art tutor’, is probably one of our more high profile members with her signature style of non-natural colours and simplified shapes, all derived from local landscapes. She uses her instagram account to post preparatory sketches, often in charcoal, and to talk about her work.

I love Janet Butterworth‘s tables; in fact I have one next to my TV with a lamp and a sculpture of Alien made with bits of motorcycle parts on it! Janet ‘distresses’ and rescues old furniture by adding mosaics and colour. All of them sound furniture in addition to being things of beauty. Janet was the only artist there to talk to and she was busy fielding questions about possible purchases of other artists’ work on their behalf. We did have a brief chat but I never made the connection between her and the tables as she was down the opposite end of the church from them.

These are all by Rosalind Landreth who seems able to cover a range from botanical through to photorealistic. Again, glass, reflective in strong light, impairs photographed image,

  I think I would like to make work like these by Alison Millner-Gulland (Mixed media paintings, printmaking and ceramics). Almost cartoons, collaged, a bit abstract but with a message if you can stay to look and read it in there. There’s a lot to look at and so many interesting marks on her various supports. I’m interested in the frames too – how do people choose? How do you find the right one for each piece?

Lino prints by Melissa Birch, ‘Linoprint Artwork and Design’. I have to confess no idea at all how these works are made, my only experience being carving out channels in chunks of old lino at school, plastering the surface with poster paint, and slapping them onto paper to finally reveal an acorn or a spider or whatever we thought we had marked out. I suspect the operation is more sophisticated than that and I should ask – Melissa lives only a couple of hundred yards from me.

Jill Blake – ‘Water Colour and Acrylic Painting‘ – makes originals and prints of natural scenes, objects, and animals. I forget what she calls the technique used in the picture of teasels (bottom left) but it involves leakage.

Finally, these are by Karen Corballis, widow of John. She describes her work as ‘Mixed Media, Oil, Water Colour and Print Making’. The one I like best is a landscape of trees in a left-to-right, background-to-midground composition done in vibrant summer greens and yellows with a slash of dark trunks marking the line, and a sliver of sky above. It’s on her Steyning Arts website.

    Steyning Arts summer exhibition Held in St Nicholas Church, Bramber. All the work shown is for sale (with one exception) and wherever possible I will include links to the artist's website or, if they don't have one, to their page on the Steyning Arts site.